


If You

by Naomida



Series: The Amazing(ly shitty) Spiderman [5]
Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Twins, BFF Deadpool, Gen, M/M, Peter sucks a little, Swordy Ponytail cameo, it's not a secret identity if everyone knows your name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 07:04:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5996122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naomida/pseuds/Naomida
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story features a red hoodie, two Spidermen, one angry guy on a hoverboard, heart to heart conversations, a secret meeting to make out, two Avengers and several broken bones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You

Hilly was curled up on the couch, pretending to watch TV, when Peter walked into the living-room and stopped dead on his track to stare at her. Except from that brief moment when she had been hospitalized because of his ex BFF throwing bombs at her, they hadn't talked at all since all the things that had been said in the Baxter Building. It was awkward as hell and Aunt May was trying to bully them into talking again but Hilly still felt too bitter and hurt to forgive him.

“What the hell are you wearing?” he asked after a long minute of intense staring.

She looked down at the red hoodie she had put on without thinking. It was Deadpool's, the one he had given her when she had taken a shower at his place, that very first time he had saved her life. It was way too big for her, and she probably should have given it back by now, but she felt safe wearing it, and it kept her warm, and it was totally none of Peter's business.

“Clothes.” she replied, turning back to the TV.

She hadn't left the house in a week, ever since she had left Deadpool – _Wade_ 's apartment, but she tried not to think about that, even if it was haunting her. She hadn't slept that much either.

Apparently, taking a sword in the head had been okay for her mental state but seeing someone bleed to death was not.

“I know those are clothes, but do you own them?”

Sighing, Hilly sent him a flat look.

“Why would I steal clothes?”

“It's not what I mean.” he said, sounding annoyed.

“It's a friend's okay. He lend me his hoodie.”

Peter raised an eyebrow and took a step closer to the couch.

“A friend? Or boyfriend?”

She almost touched her lips. _Almost_.

That kiss with Deadpool – _Wade_ , she was never getting used to knowing his name – had been nothing. Just a 'hey I'm alive so please stop freaking out' type of thing. They hadn't talked about it. In fact they hadn't talked at all because after taking a shower, he had sat her down in front of stupid reality TV while he was in the kitchen, cleaning up all the blood, then he had smiled at her, she had waved back, and gone home. And that was it.

“Just a friend.” she told her twin before grabbing the remote to turn the TV off and getting up to go back to her bedroom.

Peter followed her.

“Are you okay? Cause you've been off for the past few days.”

“Yeah, I'm just looking for a new job.” she lied.

She was starting the following week in another Squirrelicious in Manhattan, not that Peter was even remotely curious about that. She didn't even know if he had known where she was working before The Explosion.

“Oh, okay then...” he lamely said right before she reached her bedroom and closed the door on him.

 

 

***

 

 

Sue Storm was a blessing.

She was gorgeous, and ultra smart, and she kept Johnny Storm away from Hilly – and _that_ , that was priceless and greatly helping Hilly's fragile mental health.

Apparently, the boys in Hilly's life couldn't take a clue when she totally stopped talking to them. They didn't realize that it maybe meant that she didn't want them to talk to her either – no, they all took it as a sign that they should annoy and bother her even more than before until she went back to talking to them.

So, as if Peter now being sure that she had a secret boyfriend wasn't enough, Spidey was also being stalked by the Human Torch every time he had the opportunity – meaning every time he saw Hilly when his sister wasn't near to keep him away.

Thank goodness, Sue was here that day.

Doctor Doom's monthly attack was going down near Central Park, meaning that half of the doombots were hiding in the park so it made it even harder to find them, and to make matter worse, Swordy-Ponytail was here, sending her side-glances between every doombot he killed.

Hilly wanted to puke.

She was punching through a doombot when some guy she didn't even know stepped next to her, raised his right hand and froze another robot with the ice coming off his palm.

“Hey!” he said, smiling, before raising his other hand and freezing another one under Swordy-Ponytail's scrutiny. “So, Torch may or may not have sent me to talk to you since his sister won't let him.”

Hilly groaned.

“Can't this guy ever let go?” she asked as she was webbing a bot.

“Well, he said that since he knows your real identity you guys need to talk.”

Hilly had thrown herself at a car, once, and the moment she heard those words felt a lot like the moment her cracked ribs had met the car's hood. It was almost funny, how everything was very slowly crumbling apart around her yet she still managed to be surprised every time she realized it.

“Did he say how?” she managed to ask without turning to face the guy, her voice sounding very distant.

“No, but he said to find him at the usual place tonight.”

Hilly nodded, not feeling her face anymore, and webbed another doombot before leaving the street – her hands and legs were shaking too much for her to be of any help in the fight.

 

 

***

 

 

Aunt May was watching her closely, her lunch sitting abandoned in her plate in front of her, as Hilly helped herself to a third serving of sautéed potatoes.

“You know you can tell me if anything is bothering you, right?” she finally asked, sounding concerned.

“I'm fine.” replied Hilly before stuffing her face with potatoes.

She knew that May wanted to ask questions, had been wanting to for a while now, but there were only so many people who could know the truth about her – or at least part of it – and she also knew that if there was only one thing Peter was adamant about, it was for Aunt May to _never_ know about Spidey.

“If this is about this boyfriend of yours, you don't have to be afraid, you can tell me about him I will not judge you.”

Hilly rolled her eyes. “You shouldn't listen to what Pete says, I don't have a boyfriend.”

“Hillary,” started May, and it was never good when she used her full name so Hilly put her fork down and swallowed the potatoes that were in her mouth. “I do your laundry, and if you think that the impressive collection of male sweatpants and hoodies hidden under your bed has somehow escaped me, you are wrong.”

Swallowing down again, this time the panic clinging to her throat, Hilly looked down at her hands on the table, wondering how this was all happening to her in the same day.

“I...” she tried, before coming short of words.

What was there to say? 'All those clothes are Deadpool's, you know the crazy merc I totally did not watch die a week ago, from all the times he has saved my life'?

“I just want you to know that you can bring him home, I have nothing against you dating boys, I… I just want you to be safe, and with someone that respects you.”

If Hilly hadn't been speechless before, now she truly was.

“I know this past couple of years have been hard on you, especially since you've been trying to take care of Peter this whole time and neglecting yourself, so I'm glad that you're finally focusing on doing something for yourself. And I'm proud of you, no matter what.”

Blinking back sudden and burning tears, Hilly let Aunt May reach across the table, grab her left hand and hold it as they sat in silence for a few minutes.

“What's his name?” was the murmured question that broke the silence and finally got Hilly to look up at her smiling aunt.

“Wade.” she admitted. “But we're not dating.”

“Really?” asked May, raising an amused eyebrow.

“Yeah.” she nodded, biting her lips. “We just hang out sometimes.”

“But he means something to you, doesn't he?”

“I… yeah. I mean, he's the only friend I have.”

And, now that she was thinking about it, he was the only one preferring her to Peter and the only one to actually consider her as more than the masked spider themed vigilante and think about the fact that there was a real person with some actual feelings other than cynicism under the mask.

He was the only one that made her think that, maybe, this whole superhero thing wasn't the biggest mistake of her life.

 

 

***

 

 

Like the first time she had been forced to agree to meet with the Human Torch, Hilly had no idea how to go to the Statue of Liberty. It was only nine p.m since the guy she had talked to hadn't given her a real hour so she figured that she still had time before the superhero arrived. The night was warm, not too windy, the sun was starting to set but there was still enough light for her to see clearly and, weirdly enough, someone dressed exactly like her was standing in front of the water, only a few meters away.

She had a bad feeling, a _really_ bad one, about this, so she hid behind the first thing she found, a low wall, and watched.

By the time the Human Torch touched down next to the second Spiderman, Hilly was almost ready to leave. She couldn't feel her left foot after kneeling for so long, but she was glad she had stayed when Johnny Storm wrapped an arm around Spidey's shoulders, slowly grabbed his mask and pushed it off his face to kiss him.

Of course, _of fucking course_ , the other Spidey was Peter, this wasn't a surprise, but the fact that he was _kissing Johnny_ , who k _new his identity_ , that was really… she had no words for it. She didn't even know _how_ that was possible. How Johnny knew about Peter. How Peter knew that Johnny would meet Spidey there that night.

It was all a big What The Fuck for her, and she wondered for a second if she should ruin the moment by stepping out of her hiding place – but what would that prove then? That there were two Spideys, and that Hilly was petty, nothing else. So, slowly and completely silently, she got up and left without looking back at her twin making out with that guy.

 

 

***

 

 

The new Squirrelicious Hilly was working at had a stricter policy about correct names on the badges than the previous – and now destroyed – one but that was about the only difference. She still had to wear the terribly ugly uniform composed of a mustard yellow and red blouse and a cap with a stuffed squirrel sitting on the top of her head.

And let's not forget about the fact that Deadpool was sitting at a table, waving at her, even though it was only her third day here and there was literally no way he could have known she was working at this diner in particular.

He was staring at her badge – or maybe her boob, she really didn't know – when she finally walked to his table.

“Did you put a tracking device on me or something?” she asked, looking down at her pad.

She still felt awkward just thinking about him so having to talk to him was one of the last thing she wanted to do, but she couldn't ignore him, not when she was supposed to work.

“I should have, it's hard to get a hold of you.”

“I was busy. What do you want to order?”

“Pancakes. Can we talk?”

“With coffee? And I can't, I'm working.”

“Yeah, coffee please. Come _on_ babygirl, I know you have no one to talk to when I'm not here.”

“That's not true.” she replied, writing his order down – even though it kinda was because besides Aunt May, she did have no one else.

“Come on!”

He pushed his mask up over his nose, showing off his pout and Hilly had to bit down on her lip to stop herself from smiling. He was kind of ridiculous, but she had spent the last two weeks avoiding him (and Johnny Storm. And Peter. It was seriously getting complicated to keep track) so she probably owed him at least that.

“Alright.” she sighed, “But only for five minutes, I'm working.”

“Yeah yeah, don't worry.”

She left his table long enough to get him too many pancakes, a cup of coffee and tell another server that she was taking her break, before coming back, giving him his order and sitting down in front of him.

“I love the squirrel, by the way.” he said, pointing to her cap with his fork before planting it with force in a pancake while she rolled her eyes at him.

He started munching on the pancake, with his mouth close for once, and Hilly wondered what it was that she found endearing in him. It certainly wasn't his table manners or his bad habit of eating while wearing gloves. The roll of his muscles under the spandex when he reached for the sugar on the table behind him, however, probably had something to do with it.

“So, wassup?” he asked between swallowing down the pancake while dumping at least a pound of sugar into his coffee and taking a sip.

“Nothing. Did you come all the way here just to ask me that?”

He shook his head and grabbed another pancake – this time with his gloved finger.

“I want to know how you're doing.” he said, mouth full. “You were pretty shaken up last time I saw you.”

She didn't know if he was looking at her or at his food because of the mask, but she still looked down at the table to avoid his eyes – and she kind of wished she could see them instead of the white blankness of his mask.

“I'm good it's just… it was the first time I ever saw someone die. You know, apart from that one time you killed that guy to save me.”

That wasn't true, _at all_ , but she hadn't cared about the giant Lizard scientist and the adrenaline pulsing through her veins had powered her through Gwen's dad's death. With him, it had been different. She knew him. She liked him. The last thing she wanted was for him to die.

“I thought you knew about my healing factor.” he said when she continued staring at the table.

“I do. Which is why I wasn't expecting you to die and just come back later.”

“It happens, but I guess it sucks to see that when you're not used to it, so sorry.”

Looking up at him sharply, she _knew_ their eyes met before he ducked his head.

“You don't have to apologize.” she said, wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. “It's… well, it's not okay, because seeing you die sucked a lot, but you've helped me so many times… I couldn't let you die alone. I uh… I'm actually glad you came to me.”

He nodded, even if there was nothing to agree to, and Hilly wondered for a second if she should reach across the table and grab his hand, because it felt like the right thing to do in this situation.

Unfortunately, the moment was broken by Spiderman getting thrown at the diner's window _right next to them_.

Eyes bulging in horror, Hilly jumped to her feet the moment she realized a green figure on a hoverboard was standing in front of her twin, holding a pumpkin shaped grenade in his hand.

“Oh shit.” she muttered before she was sprinting to the diner's front door.

Deadpool grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her right back in just as she was stepping in the street.

“The fuck is going on?” he asked, letting go of her wrist to grab her by the shoulders and force her to turn around and face him.

“I have to help him!”

“I thought you were” he gestured wildly with his right hand in the direction of the street “ _him_!”

“ _I am_ it's… it's a long story, and I can tell you all about it if you want, but first I have to help him.”

He didn't let go of her shoulders and the only reason she didn't use her super strength was because he bent down so their face were at the same height.

“And how exactly do you plan on explaining to your colleagues that you have super powers?” he asked, just loud enough so she could hear him over the sound of every costumer and employee getting up and shouting as they were watching the fight happening just behind her.

“I...”

She sighed then pursed her lips, irritated that he was right and that right now, there was no way she could get out and help her twin without either revealing her secret or letting the world know that they were two Spideys instead of one.

“I'll help him, it's okay, just stay there and don't do anything stupid.” he said, taking a step back and finally letting go of her shoulders.

“I thought you were the one acting stupidly.”

“Never.” he smiled before pushing his mask down and reaching for the gun at his thigh. “Here.” he said, handing it to her, “In case things get really bad like last time you and I were in a diner.”

“I don't know how to use a gun!”

“Its easy, you'll see.” he said before pushing her out of the way and getting out.

Hilly stayed where she was, gaping at Deadpool's back while he joined Peter, who was trying to dodge the grenades currently raining down on the street.

 

 

***

 

 

Things got really bad, really fast. The police got involved to get everyone out of the diner using the back door, Daredevil got involved, some guy with big metal claws got involved (and Hilly wasn't even sure who's side he was on), then Iron Man had to get involved too and after that she had no idea what had happened. There was just smoke everywhere and she was sitting on a nearby rooftop, feet dangling from the edge, waiting.

She heard Peter land behind her but didn't make a move.

“Why was Deadpool with you?” he asked without joining her.

“He likes pancakes and shitty diners, I guess.” she replied, still eying the smoke rising.

“Does he know about us?”

“Of course no.”

It wasn't exactly a lie. He only knew about her, and even if she probably had to tell him that there was another Spidey out there, she wasn't planning on telling him who exactly it was – not that she didn't trust Deadpool with that kind of secret, after all she knew that she could trust him with her own life, but she didn't want Peter to be involved and ruin it for her like so many other things.

“How can you be sure?”

“He saw Spidey as I was standing right next to him, so unless he thinks I have the power to multiply...”

“But he was talking to you.”

“Yeah, that's what he does, talking. All the time. With everyone.”

Peter huffed, and she still had her back to him, but she was pretty sure his lips were pursed and his arms were crossed. He was annoyed – at her or the rest, she wasn't sure.

“And you, when were you going to tell me about Johnny?” she asked, keeping her voice calm and even.

He gave her no answer and when she finally turned around, Spidey was already mid-air, two buildings away from her.

 

 

***

 

 

Squirrelicious wasn't going to reopen until at least the next day and chances were high that Peter was home so, without really having to think about it, Hilly left the rooftop and took the subway to Deadpool's apartment.

His front door was ajar and he was sprawled on his couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table, South Park playing on the TV, when she got there. She entered, closed the door behind her and sat next to him without a word, feeling a little nervous.

It was the first time she was there without someone being injured or totally dying, and Deadpool was wearing jeans and a black hoodie with his mask instead of the usual red spandex, which was a first, so it all felt a little bit too casual for her. As if this occasion was making their weird friendship official or something like that.

“So.” he said after at least ten minutes of silence between them. “Are you finally gonna tell me that all of this was nothing but a very elaborate plan to let you into my house and that you're, in fact, not Spidey but an assassin sent to kill me?”

“Of course not.” she said, turning to look at him. “I… I'm not an assassin, and there's no plan I just...” she started worrying her lower lip between her teeth while looking for the right words. “It's very complicated, and a long story.”

“But I wanna know.” he said, turning to face her too.

Staring into the blank white eyes of the mask, she sighed. Maybe finally telling someone about what exactly had went down would be good for her. Maybe not. Either way, she knew she was going to tell him no matter what.

“Alright, but I'm not doing this if you're wearing your mask.”

He seemed startled by the request, but after a few seconds he sighed, nodded, and very quickly took it off, mouth drawn into a tight line.

Hilly had to admit, at least to herself, that something in her chest shuddered and jumped a little when her eyes met his baby blue ones, and she was kind of fascinated by a large scar starting on his temple, running down his sharp left cheekbone and ending curling against his nostril, but considering how his shoulders were suddenly much tighter than before and how he was twisting his mask between his (oh gosh, very long and very beautiful and very gloveless) fingers, she knew he was embarrassed and tried not to stare.

“Thanks.” she said, ducking her head and feeling a little stupid but like she owed him that. “I uh… I am Spiderman. I'm just not the original one.”

That seemed to interest him enough for him to forget about his embarrassment as he frankly met her gaze.

“I've only been Spiderman for…” she quickly counted the months in her head, “eight months or so, but I've had the powers for much longer. Actually, do you remember that time a dude tried to turn everyone into lizards?”, he nodded, “I got them that night.”

“And… the other Spiderman?”

“He's… He forced me into getting those powers so I could save someone, that night, but this girl died so he stopped and I took over.”

“Is that the girl you were talking about? When you had the concussion.”

Hilly nodded, surprised that he had paid attention to what she was saying that night.

“So, if I understand this correctly,” he continued, “that's also why you disguise yourself as a dude.”

“Yeah. And if I have to be honest with you, I never thought I'd be a superhero for so long. When the original Spidey stopped, I could see how it was killing him that a lot of people were left on their own, so that's why I took over for some times, but I was expecting him to get over it in maybe a month or two, three max, before we could all go back to our normal lives, but he didn't stop feeling guilty.”

“And now he's back.”

“Yep, now he's back on top of everything else. And the guy you fought today, he's the one who killed the girl, he knows who we are, the original Spidey and me, and he wants to kill me as revenge.”

“Revenge for what?”

“I still don't know. Spidey won't tell me.”

She didn't know what else to say. Who knew talking about this would make her feel totally stupid and ridiculous? And the fact that Deadpool's bare face wasn't showing any kind of reaction was just making it harder.

“But how do you know him?”

“He's always been in my life.” was the only thing she could reply to that – because it was true, and because she couldn't tell him the simple answer that Spidey was her twin brother. “But why are you taking it so easily?”

He grinned, something she had never seen without the mask before, and it made her almost giddy to see the glint he got in his eyes when he did so.

“It actually makes a lot of sense. Like, you used to be a lot taller, and your shoulders were wider, and your butt was perky but not _that much_. And that also explains why Spidey suddenly stopped being so mean to me and actually accepted to hang out.”

“I actually hated you a lot at first.”

“Oh trust me, you were still nicer.”

“Maybe, but I'm a very bad superhero compared to him.”

“Maybe, but at least you let me shine as the best caretaker that ever existed.”

Snorting, Hilly tried to not let her eyes linger – on his nose, his mouth, his neck, his hands – as he smiled at her, but Deadpool, no _Wade_ 's everything was so singular, she knew that having this conversation with him, unmasked, was a proof that he considered her a friend too.

And that knowledge made her very happy.

 

 

***

 

 

Johnny Storm was staring and Hilly was feeling trapped.

Squirrelicious hadn't reopened the morning after the attack, so she had thought that going on a patrol would be a good idea, but this wasn't counting on Iron Man and Captain America themselves coming to her and asking for a private discussion.

Now there she was, on the Baxter Building's roof, with the two Avengers and half of the Fantastic Four looking at her.

“Sooo?” she asked when no one made a move – though, in his defense, The Thing seemed pretty absorbed by what was happening on his phone's screen.

“We want you to join the Avengers, Peter.” said Iron Man, like that whole sentence wasn't a big deal at all.

Hilly's vision got blurry for a second before she blinked, stunned.

Tony Stark knew Spidey's identity, that wasn't new to her, and so did Johnny, but the fact that Captain America and The Thing didn't even bat an eyelash at the name made her feel uneasy. Did Peter tell them? Did they find by themselves? _Did Peter know_?

“What?” she said, because seriously, she wasn't even sure she had understood the beginning of his sentence correctly.

“After our little conversation last week,” started Captain America – and this was the first time Hilly talked to him _ever_ so Peter had a lot of explaining to do, “we really thought about you and your place in the superhero community and we came to the conclusion that we would really like you to join us.”

“But there'll always be a place for you in the Fantastic Five!” immediately piped up Johnny, taking a step closer to her. “Seriously, Reed won't care and Sue already loves you, and we don't care about what Ben thinks.”

“You little shit.” muttered The Thing.

“ _What_?” repeated Hilly.

But it seemed like no one was paying attention to her inner turmoils and confusion, because Iron Man turned to Johnny, face plate coming up, and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Are you afraid we're stealing your crush? Cause there's no worry to have, you'll still get time to play with him even if he's on our team.”

“Fuck off Stark.” replied Johnny.

Captain America said something back, but Hilly was too busy looking over her shoulder at the edge of the building to pay any attention. She could jump from were she was standing and could easily web herself to the building on the other side of the street and swing away.

When she looked back at the four superheroes, only The Thing was paying any attention to her, and he even winked at her, making her smile softly, right before she jumped.

 

 

***

 

 

Crashing into Peter's bedroom in full Spidey mode was probably overly dramatic, but Hilly's thoughts were spinning around her head too quickly for her to think about it too much – even if she took a second to appreciate the look of surprise mixed with mild annoyance on her twin's face as he got up from his desk chair and faced her.

“What the hell?” he asked her.

“Indeed.” she replied, taking her mask off. “Guess who just asked me to join their superhero team after a talk we supposedly had last week?”

Peter didn't even pretend to be ashamed or anything. He beamed at her as if he'd just won the lottery and took an excited step in her direction.

“Oh my god, The Avengers want me?!” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Hilly, tone dripping with fake excitement, “and so does your boyfriend! He said we can be a member of the Fantastic Five! Isn't that great? When are we telling them that there're two of us so we'll lose the alliteration?”

As if she'd just thrown a bucket of ice on him, Peter lost his smile and excitement in a heartbeat.

“Hilly...” he breathed.

“Since when do they all know your identity?” she asked, taking a step up and frowning.

“Since I decided to come back.”

“And you never thought that it might be a good idea to tell me?”

“I know you never wanted to be Spidey and it's just a matter of time before you finally stop.”

“What?! It's… Peter!”

It was true, in a way, but for some reason Hilly felt insulted at that.

“It's true, don't even pretend that you like it!”

“Maybe, but I'd like to not be the last one to know, _just for once_!”

Peter huffed and something glinted in his eyes that Hilly really didn't like.

“Look.” he said, taking another step up, so he was directly in front of her, close enough to touch. “I decided to be Spidey full time, so you can give me the costume and web-shooters back.”

“No, no way.” she shook her head, taking a step back just as he was reaching with both his hands and gripped her right wrist.

“Hilly come on, don't pretend you suddenly like it! That's what you wanted, isn't it?”

“Not like that! I… Pete, I don't even know you anymore, what the fuck is _wrong_ with you?”

“Nothing, I just want my old life back.”

Hilly frowned deeper and opened her mouth to reply, but Peter grabbed the web-shooter on her right wrist and pulled hard enough for it to come undone before she could talk and she punched him in the jaw with her free hand on total instinct.

“Ow! Hilly!” he screamed, letting go of her to grab his face.

Quickly backing up to the window, she glared at him before putting the mask back on and leaving.

 

 

***

 

 

A week later, Peter had stolen the Spidey costume from her room while she was at work and she had to take the one that the kidnapping SHIELD agent had given her out of the back of her closet and dye it in blue and red just in time to stop a robbery and three muggings.

Her hands were still blue and she was sitting on her bed, fuming and cursing her brother, when she realized that he had managed to find her back up web-shooters.

“What the fuck do I do with just one?” she muttered before flopping back on her bed, closing her eyes and sighing.

There was a nagging thought at the back of her mind, telling her that she had something else, _a real weapon_ , but it was unthinkable. There was no way she was taking it out of its hiding place – if Peter hadn't already found it.

But no, she knew that if Peter had found the gun Deadpool had given her, he'd probably be in her bedroom right this moment, freaking out and yelling at her.

She considered going to _his_ room and looking through _his_ stuff, but knowing him the web-shooters were on him, or hidden in the most fucked up place ever, like the Baxter Building or something equally crazy.

“I fucking hate you Peter Parker.” she finally announced to her ceiling before getting up from her bed to go do something more productive than glare at furniture and curse her twin.

 

 

***

 

 

It was funny, how the world worked. For days and days, Hilly wore the badly dyed Spidey costume under her clothes and nothing happened, and the only day she decided to not wear it was also the day she ran into Harry throwing Peter at a building in the middle of New York.

Her twin collapsed to the ground and Hilly stopped breathing for a little while when she realized he wasn't getting up.

Ditching her handbag, she reached into Deadpool's red hoodie's pocket to grab her mask and put it on before running to her brother.

Harry cackled, his eyes going to her just as she reached Peter to check if he was bleeding and still breathing (no and yes – _thank god_ ).

“Thanks for finally joining us!” said Harry, hovering over a car on the other side of the empty street. “I can kill you both at the same time now.” he smiled.

“There truly is something wrong with you.” replied Hilly, wishing she had at least her only web-shooter on her – taking Peter's off seemed like a bad idea and she'd rather not think of her only other option.

“Yeah,” he sighed, “thanks to your brother. Which is why I'm gonna make him pay.”

Hilly saw the attack coming and managed to kick the grenade he threw at her, sending it far from her – and most importantly, a still unmoving Peter. Harry's only reaction was to cackle louder than before and bring his scary hoverboard thing higher up in the sky, probably just so she had to crane her neck to look at him, she knew he was megalomaniac like that.

“Seriously Harry,” she called, taking several steps away from Peter so he wouldn't hurt him while attacking her, “this shit you're pulling, that's ridiculous. And I don't even know what you're talking about.”

“Oh, he didn't tell you?” smirked Harry before diving for her.

Jumping away before he could get his hands around her neck, she wondered how the hell she was supposed to stop him. So far in her superhero career, she had never managed to stop anyone who had powers – Deadpool had always been here to do it for her before she had the chance to get killed by those guys – and the fact that this was _Harry_ , a guy she had known her whole life, made it even harder, even if she had never liked him.

“I was dying, you know. Of the same disease that killed my dad, and the only thing that could have cured me for good was in Spiderman's blood, but he played selfish and probably thought that I wouldn't realize that Spiderman, the guy willing to let me die, was in fact Peter, my _best friend_.”

He threw another bomb at her that she dodged with a little more difficulty because she was too busy gaping at Harry to pay necessary attention to it.

“ _What?_ ” was the only thing she could reply. “Harry that's… that's not possible.”

“Oh, I swear it is what happened. He was willing to let me die just to protect his stupid secret, so now I'm going to kill you both, just to prove a point.”

She didn't see the next bomb until it was bouncing off the ground next to her and the blast caught her just as she was running away, sending her flying farther away from Peter. She gritted her teeth when she landed on the ground, a good half of her body burning, and marveled over the fact that after being rescued way too many times by a mercenary, she was finally going to be murdered by her brother's childhood best friend.

Harry's hoverboard entered her line of sight and a hand gripped her by the neck before she could move and only a handful of seconds later did she understand what was going on.

The hoverboard was going up.

“I wish I could make it longer, unfortunately I know that, given the chance, you'd get away again, so I'm just gonna watch you fall to your death, which, you know, will probably bring back some memories for Peter but hey, that's _exactly_ why I'm doing this.” purred Harry, his claw-like nails digging into the side of Hilly's neck as she gripped his forearm, torn between holding onto him and struggling against his grip.

“Harry...” she groaned, looking down for just one second, her stomach churning in fear because she knew there was _no way_ she was walking away after a fall from this height.

His fingers tightened around her throat and he even added the other hand, making her choke as she started kicking around, feeling desperation coil around her guts.

“Now,” he growled, “let's kill you.”

Hilly had run into this fight without a real plan of attack – without any plan besides 'make sure Peter is alive' actually – but she knew one thing: she wasn't wearing this hoodie 24/7 for nothing and even if what she was going to do was very stupid because it would more than probably kill her, she still reached inside the hoodie, a movement Harry totally ignored, too busy babbling about revenge as he gripped her throat between his pale fingers.

If there was one thing about this hoodie that was great, it was the fact that it was Deadpool's. And people often under estimated him, but Hilly knew that this guy was always _prepared_ , so really, it hadn't been that big of a surprise when she had realized that there was a hidden pocket inside of it, just the right size and shape to hold a gun without anyone having any idea.

Reaching inside the hoodie was hard, especially since Harry's grip around her throat had her gasping and trying desperately to grab something, anything, that would make him stop. Her eyes were rolling back in her head and she was pretty sure she was going to black out and die there when her fingers finally closed around cold metal.

She felt like her arm weighed a hundred pounds when she raised it, and firing with her eyes closed didn't help the fact that she still couldn't aim at all, but she still took the safety off (she had learned to do that thanks to youtube), the canon of the gun almost touching Harry's side, and pressed the trigger twice, just to be sure.

Deadpool had shot a guy near her once, but being the one with the gun made the sound even louder, even through the cotton in her ear, and the effect was instant: she suddenly could breathe again.

She watched, as if it was all a movie running in front of her, as Harry fell backward in slow-motion, his arms still stretched in her direction and his eyes bulging in surprise, the hoverboard tilting with him for a second but staying where it was in the sky, and she tried to grip it but her fingers just brushed against its cool surface as she was falling too.

The wind was roaring around her and she closed her eyes, the gun still held firmly between her left fingers, unable to come up with any thought for her short but crazy life that was about to end. She tried picturing Peter, Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but before she could, she violently crashed to the ground, feeling for a second like every single one of her bones was breaking before everything disappeared.

 

 

***

 

 

Hilly was pretty sure you weren't supposed to hurt when you were dead and right now, her _everything_ was hurting for real.

She blinked up at two pairs of blue eyes, taking a huge breath in, and screamed in pain when she tried to raise her left hand just in case this was a hallucination and she still had to fight.

“Holy shit.” sighed Deadpool.

“She's not dead.” said Johnny, then louder over his shoulder: “Hey, she's okay!”.

Deadpool gently reached for her mask and took it off, his face showing nothing but concern as he started probing the back of her head and her nape.

“Tell me if it hurts, alright?”

“Okay.” breathed Hilly, confused and quite frankly very scared.

Deadpool's eyes didn't leave hers as his fingers ran down her arms, her collarbones, her ribs – she hissed a lot during that part, earning quiet “sorry” from him – and finally her hips.

She screamed when he touched her left hip and started panicking for real when he didn't seem surprised and Johnny Storm suddenly got up and turned around, face pale.

“What?!” she asked, voice trembling.

“Nothing it's uh… your leg is very broken.” replied Deadpool.

He gently grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her down when she tried sitting up to see.

“Trust me, you don't wanna see this.” he warned her.

Nodding, Hilly grabbed his wrist before he could let go of her shoulder and squeezed while drawing in a sharp breathe, lips slightly trembling.

“Is he dead?” she asked in a whisper.

“I'm not really sure.” replied Deadpool, looking at something over his shoulder before turning back to her. “He screamed the whole way down and started insulting you after he touched down so I think the chances that he's still breathing are big.”

“Good.” replied Hilly, biting down her lower lip. “And my brother?”

Deadpool's non-existent eyebrows quivered a little but he kept on looking at her.

“If you're talking about guy-Spidey, and I'm pretty sure you are, he got up when you started falling and his BF Flame-guy had to stop him from a total freak out because the guy hadn't even looked if you were still breathing, he just assumed you were dead, which sucks a lot, you know, cause I at least _looked_ and thankfully you are _still_ alive cause dying from a fall would have sucked, especially since you finally managed to stop a baddie without me here. Using _my_ gun. I can't tell you how _proud_ I am.”

Hilly gave him a pale smile.

“Anyway, he uh… he kinda left, I think. Like, he went to see if hoverboard guy was still alive, talked to him for a little while and disappeared as soon as you woke up.”

Blinking rapidly, Hilly tried to force herself not to cry, because that would be fucking stupid and pathetic, but Deadpool was thumbing at her eyes' outer corners before she could stop the tears and she let a little pathetic sob out before even realizing what was going on.

“Hey, oh my god, don't cry!” said Deadpool, cupping her face between his huge palms, “I know guy-Spidey's a dick but it's not worth crying, come on!”

“He's not guy-Spidey, he's just Spidey. He took my costume and everything.” she managed to reply despite the hurting lump in her throat, hands grabbing his wrists to have something to hold onto.

“Waoh… okay so he's even bigger of an asshole than I thought but really, you don't have to cry about it! I… I don't know, I'll stay with you if you want. That's the thing they do in the movies, right? The guy stays with the girl until the docs come to heal her.”

She nodded.

“Well, that's a plan then!” he announced, smiling down at her like she wasn't crying pathetically and unable to move because of her recent near-deadly fall.

 

 

***

 

 

The Avengers didn't exactly like Deadpool. It probably had to do with the fact that he had almost killed the SHIELD paramedics who had been sent to move Hilly from her spot on the ground to a freaking mini-plane thing and had inadvertently moved her ribs the wrong way and she had started coughing up blood – and wasn't that fun to think that twenty guns pointed at him hadn't made Deadpool move but the second Hilly's eyes had met his and she had stretched her right hand for him to take, he had automatically put his guns back into their holsters and grabbed her hand.

He was still holding her hand, or at least he was doing the hardcore version of it. His right fingers were around her palm and his left fingers were around her wrist, as if he was scared she was going to run away as soon as he was going to let go of her, despite the fact that almost every bone in her left leg, counting her foot, was broken. And five of her ribs. And her collarbone too, apparently.

“I don't even know how you're still alive… are you sure it doesn't hurt anymore?” asked a guy wearing a lab coat.

Hilly nodded and pretended she couldn't feel Deadpool squeeze her hand a little bit harder.

The Human Torch stormed into the room before the lab coat wearing guy could ask her another question or marvel at the fact that she had survived, _again_.

“Hey,” he said, smiling gently. “I uh… I'm bringing bad news.”

Iron Man frowned from his place on the other side of Hilly's bed – she was pretty sure he and Captain America were standing so close to her because of Deadpool – but he said nothing.

“Peter's not coming.” continued Johnny. “He said it had something to do with Harry, and I'm still not totally sure who the fuck that is.”

“What do you mean he's not coming? She had seventeen broken bones!” cried out Iron Man, gesturing to her with both hands.

“Why is Peter involved?” asked Captain America, looking down at Hilly.

“Leave her the fuck alone.” barked Deadpool.

Captain America's tight jaw and Iron Man's glare were very impressive, even from where Hilly was laying, and she wrapped her fingers around Deadpool's hand when he made to let go of her and do something stupid.

He looked down at her, scowling, and she frowned right back.

“Just do something about my leg and let me go home.” she said.

“Yeah, about that,” started Johnny, “Peter kinda said–”

“I know exactly what he said.” she cut him, craning her neck to meet Johnny's eyes despite Deadpool's body blocking the view. “He's my twin, I don't need to hear him talk to know what's going on in his head. It's fine, it's not the first time it's happened. I'll be fine.”

Judging from everyone's worried looks, no one was duped by the lie.

“Come on.” she added, “You're not gonna leave me like that with a fucked up leg, are you?”

“It's going to hurt.” warned lab coat guy, sending a quick but pointed look to Deadpool. “It's going to hurt _a lot_.”

Hilly shrugged. “It's not like I have a choice.”

Deadpool squeezed her fingers again and this time, she squeezed back.

 

 

***

 

 

She stayed in the Avengers' medical bay for about a month after getting an operation for her leg and Iron Man promising her that he had talked to her aunt and not going home for so long wasn't going to be a problem. She spent most of that time laying on a bed and listening to Deadpool babble or sass any Avengers he met – except Captain America, because he was a fanboy. It was almost fun if she forgot why she was there and the fact that her body was healing extra slowly because seventeen bones were apparently a lot, even for a super-former hero.

The day she finally got the green light to get out, she was still limping a lot but her ribs and collarbone were fine and Deadpool had insisted on getting her a wheelchair and rolling her around.

“I'm fine,” she told him for the millionth time as they were getting out of the elevator and in the building's lobby, “I don't need a wheelchair and I sure as hell can use it myself.”

“Yeah but in the movies the sick person always gets wheeled out of the hospital by the love interest, don't they?”

“Maybe,” she replied, eyes rolling, “but we're not in a movie and you're not the love interest.”

“ _Please_. I _so_ am! Look at the evidences, I'm tall, sexy, have a rough voice and I keep on rescuing you.”

“You're also super annoying.” she said just as they were getting out of the lobby and on the street.

“Whatever.” huffed Deadpool, “You'll accept the truth one day.”

“Yeah, probably.” she bit back.

“Ooh! Sarcasm, I love it!”

She rolled her eyes again as he stopped the wheelchair on the side of the sidewalk and started hailing for a cab.

“Do you even have money for a cab?”

“Yep, and Flame-guy and I had a long convo about Spidey so I know he basically doesn't want you in his house so you're coming to mine and we're _finally_ having our pajama party!”

Hilly's protests were drowned by the sound of a cab stopping in front of them and she just had time to get up from the wheelchair before Deadpool tried to lift her.

“I can't crash at your place.” she said as he opened the cab's door for her. “You've already done too much. I'll be fine, he can't keep me out of the house for ever.”

“Come on,” he replied, raising an eyebrow under his mask and crossing his arms, “don't tell me you don't want to come to my place and party the shit out of life for a few days while eating tacos and drowning in Red Bull?”

“I hate Red Bull.”

“Yeah, but I'm your BFF so you don't have a choice, you're coming to my place.”

“You mean your shithole?” she asked before sighing and finally getting into the waiting cab.

“Exactly, but don't pretend you don't like my couch!” he replied, climbing in after her and closing the door, leaving the wheelchair on the sidewalk.

“I'm not saying or pretending anything.” she replied, raising her hands in surrender.

“Great!” he grinned before leaning between the front seats to tell the driver his address.


End file.
